Pope Ratzinger Retires

I had no clue that being selected to hear the unfiltered voice of God was an optional thing?

“The selection ceremony is over, we have determined that it is God’s will that Bob be the avatar for the conscious universe. What is your Papal decree?”
“Eh, I’m not feeling this whole thing. If there’s someone else with the divine grace of God that can fill in for me, that’d be swell. I’m getting a house boat.”

While the ontological premise of resigning from being the avatar for the conscious universe baffles and amuses me, I have to give a certain amount of respect to Ratzinger. The modesty and honesty required to admit you’re not cognizant enough for the world to hang on your every word is honorable. Quiet voices surrounding the last pope mentioned that he had kind of lost his shit a while before he died. Dementia would make it awful difficult to be so self critical, but Ratzinger has the wisdom and foresight to admit his weakness, which I consider quite generous and humble.

Edit: Unless of course this retirement has anything to do with sexual abuse scandals or anything like that, in which case fuck him, take responsibility.

Most curious. I wonder if they’ll pick another arch conservative, it didn’t really work out this time. There’s an identity crises working itself out in the Catholic Church. Whether they want to be fundamentalist, traditionalist, inheritors of thousands of years of legacy. Or embrace progressive, changing values of inclusion, multiculturalism, and interpretation.

The church claims that its physical ailments that’s preventing the pope from continuing his job and from what I’ve seen I’d have to agree to some extent. I would also note that the pope still listens and prays to God but instead of doing so as a pope he does so as a Cardinal (and probably ends up in a monastery somewhere).

Also….

I had no clue that being selected to hear the unfiltered voice of God was an optional thing?

I believe you can deny being a pope (during the conclave) but its extremely poor form to.

“I don’t want to be closer in communication to the all powerful indecipherable creator of everything.”

It’s astounding how many posts some of the shithole threads on these forums get, yet you guys don’t have any interest in one of the most unprecedented social stories in our world since the very early 1400s?

“I don’t want to be closer in communication to the all powerful indecipherable creator of everything.”

Whoah, what? Is that a direct quote? What is the source of that? That’s a pretty crazy thing for the pope to say.

It’s astounding how many posts some of the shithole threads on these forums get, yet you guys don’t have any interest in one of the most unprecedented social stories in our world since the very early 1400s?

It ultimately seems a very rational act. It’s a romantic thing to hold an office until death, but ultimately most people aren’t doing all that well before they die. The idea of the face and leader of an organization stepping down before he’s a lingering, mad corpse is hardly all that shocking in its own right. The fact that it is contrary to so much tradition of the tradition of the Catholics I think shows only the earlier roots of the organization.

I dare say if anything it shows their maturation as an organization. That the Pope is no longer a reigning God-Emperor clutching his keys to heaven until death, but a simple figurehead representing wisdom, insight and authority over the Church. Seems, well, reasonable to me.

The Pope has a huge influence in quite a few countries.
Remember that whole condom issue?
People were not upset because some religious leader talked bullshit. People were upset because some religious leader talked bullshit and many people in countries that are hotspots for HIV listen to that guy.

There was an issue with the pope in some European countries not so long ago, as well. He spoke out strongly against proposed homosexual and transgender equality laws the UK and France were both considering. Citing such things as ungodly. Claiming, and I quote:

“When freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God.”

In other words, apparently there should be limits on how much freedom of expression, and individual choice to run their own lives an individual should be allowed, according to him at least. Thankfully, less and less governments are bothering to listen to him, at least in Europe.

Maybe the next one won’t be an arch-conservative with his head up his own behind, and that behind placed firmly in the eighteenth centry, but I rather doubt it.

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